The goal of being a Christian is that of learning from and following Jesus more and more closely as one makes their way through the journey of life. To follow Jesus more closely means that we have to get close to Jesus…to listen to him, to see him, to allow his words and love to flow over and into our lives. There are all sorts of different ways to achieve this goal, but this is truly what discipleship is about.
But here’s the challenge in it all…it seems like there are always obstacles that get in the way of getting close to Jesus. Or at least I should say, that is the reality in my life and my faith journey. It seems there are constantly obstacles that I must deal with that strive to keep me from drawing near to Jesus. These obstacles are such things as busyness, lousy attitude, distractions, judgementalism, pride, lack of commitment, over scheduling, sin, and this is just the short list of my personal list of things that keep me from getting close to Jesus. How about you? What would be on your list of obstacles that keep you from getting close to Jesus?
There’s a great story in the Bible found in Luke 19. It’s the story of someone who wasn’t yet a Jesus follower, but this individual was wanting to see Jesus and get a bit closer to him. I believe he was actually wanting to be a Jesus follower but didn’t know what to do to become one. However, this individual was not very popular in the community. In fact, he was downright despised because of his profession. He was the tax man. For this reason, people intentionally kept him away from Jesus. The tax man was rather short in stature and couldn’t see over the crowd lining the street. He likely tried to push through the crowd to get up front for better viewing, but again, because of who he was, the townspeople wouldn’t let him through. Obviously, there was a clear and significant obstacle in his way of getting to Jesus. And unfortunately, it was people that were the greatest obstacles. (There’s a sermon in that for another day!)
This individual, whom I’m guessing most of you have heard of. His name is Zacchaeus, he got creative and ran ahead of the crowd, further down the road that Jesus would likely be traveling. Then he climbed a tree beside the road so that he would be able to see Jesus when he walked by. The plan worked, Jesus passed that way and even saw Zacchaeus up in the tree and invited him to come down. Not only that, Jesus invited himself over for dinner at Zacchaeus’ home, to which Zacchaeus readily agreed. And this was the beginning of a significant change of focus for Zacchaeus’ life.
What made it possible for Zacchaeus to see Jesus was the fact that he didn’t let the obstacles defeat him. He got creative and decided the greater goal of seeing Jesus was more important than anything else. He just had to work around the obstacle that was getting in his way and Zacchaeus had the commitment and drive to make it happen.
This is a great lesson for us all, to not be defeated by the obstacles in life that keep us from Jesus. There is always a creative way to deal with that which blocks us from Jesus and as Zacchaeus would certainly tell us, it is certainly worth the effort to overcome the obstacle and make the effort to get close to Jesus in order to experience the presence and love that Jesus offers to all, especially those wanting to get close. So, what is your obstacle?? Next question…what are you going to do this week to get around that obstacle? Jesus is willing and waiting to reward your effort to draw near.
Pastor Keith